Grant McCann believes Rovers’ impressive resolve at Swindon Town was reflective of how far the team has progressed in recent weeks.
Rovers held on under strong pressure from the hosts to secure a 2-1 win at the County Ground.
And McCann said he felt his side would have come away with nothing in such circumstances earlier in the season.
“I reckon, and this is a big statement from me, that we’d have lost that game going back three or four months,” the Rovers manager said.
“I don’t know why but I just think we’d have felt the heat and gone under.
“But this group has got a real spirit about them, with leaders in the group now and real experience that kept us sound.
“Timmy [Lo-Tutala] made a couple of good saves and took the sting out of the game. And we still had the chance to go 3-1 up with Luke Molyneux. How he missed it I don’t know, and he’s talking about it himself.
“What I was pleased with was the resilience from the group to keep that second goal out, that equalising goal for Swindon.
“This is a long way for us to come and we’re pleased with the win.”
Maxime Biamou put Rovers ahead after ten minutes with Hakeeb Adelakun doubling the advantage midway through the first half.
Paul Glatzel pulled a goal back for Swindon early in the second half, with Rovers standing up to pressure as the hosts pushed for the equaliser.
“It’s a good win,” McCann said. “We scored two very good goals in the first half. We knew we’d be coming up against a Swindon side looking for a reaction from the defeat in midweek so it was pleasing to score early.
“We thought there might be changes at half time and they did change the shape. We’d worked on two or three ways that Swindon play.
“We didn’t start the second half great and then we had to dig in.
“We’ve probably not done enough of that this season, digging in when teams have a spell against us. Fair play to Swindon, it was all through the second half and they were good.
“We had to dig, be strong, defend, track runners, block crosses and we did it well.”
